Experts: No need to worry on 12-21-12

Updated 1:10 pm, Friday, December 21, 2012

So today's the end of the world as we know it, at least according to gloomier interpretations of a certain Mayan calendar. Relax. The more scientific voices of reason out there say everything will be just fine. The fear of an apocalypse stems from the Mayan Long Count calendar, which the Maya based on their belief that the world was created approximately 5,125.36 years ago.

The end of that calendar duration, or Great Cycle, correlates with our Western calendar date of Dec. 21, 2012 — hence the belief that this is the end, my only friend, the end.

But take heart! Experts say the world will indeed see the remains of this day, the next and beyond. Why? Because that Long Count calendar basically acts like an ancient odometer.

We might fall off the fiscal cliff, but the U.S. government stresses we won't tumble into the abyss.

Photo: File Photo, Associated Press

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No need to worry about modern phenomena such as the Milky Way's black hole, Scobee Planetarium's Bob Kelley says.

No need to worry about modern phenomena such as the Milky Way's black hole, Scobee Planetarium's Bob Kelley says.

Photo: File Photo, Associated Press

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This glyph, a 1,300-year-old Guatemalan stone inscription refers to the so-called "end date" of the Maya calendar, Dec. 21, 2012, but "the entire text talks about ancient political history rather than prophecy," says Marcello A. Canuto, director of Tulane's Middle American Research Institute, explaining that the 2012 reference places a king’s "troubled reign and accomplishments into a larger cosmological framework."

“The world will not end on Dec. 21, 2012, or any day in 2012,” the government says on its official website, USA.gov. Snark aside, the government does take this very seriously. And just as well, since such speculation can be frightening, especially to children. That's why USA.gov includes NASA links for scientific answers on astrobiology concerns and videos that debunk end-of-the-world rumors.

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“The Maya(n) calendar not only doesn't end, but it keeps going for eons and eons beyond 2012,” Stuart says. “If you look at the real structure of the calendar, it's almost endless. It goes well beyond the end of our universe and our own kind of scientific cosmology.”

The Maya never promised a doomsday anyway

“If it was such an important day ... you'd think it would be mentioned,” Yaeger says.

Yaeger says Mayan civilizations probably viewed such calendar transitions with some trepidation. But he also notes the Maya were diligent in their rituals and calendar construction. And there's no evidence of any prophecy of an apocalypse or warning in classic Mayan inscriptions.

“The notion of Mayan doomsday prophecy is a total modern cultural phenomenon,” Yaeger says.

Even the astronomical phenomena that happen today are safe

Scobee Planetarium coordinator Bob Kelley notes today will be the shortest day of the year in San Antonio and the rest of the Northern Hemisphere since it's the winter solstice. That means the sun will be at its lowest in the noontime sky.

The sun also will be in the same general direction as the center of our Milky Way galaxy. And yes, that center does contain a massive — yet very distant — black hole. But these things do not add up to global or galactic catastrophe.

“We don't really have to worry about the black hole energy or a rogue planet reversing the magnetic field of the Earth, (or the) alignment of the winter solstice and the galactic center,” Kelley says.

The one certainty after today?

“You'll have three days left to do your Christmas shopping,” Kelley says. “That is absolutely a fact.”